Tips for Preparing for a SHTF Scenario on a Low/No Budget

 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 

18 Ways to Prepare Without
Spending a Cent

By Robert Boyd

There are many great ways to use a percentage of your income or extra spending money to prepare for an uncertain future. Survival food with a long shelf life is a big one, of course, as are a water filtration system, a generator, non-GMO seeds and others.

But not all survival preparation requires a budget. In fact, there are many ways to prepare for a disaster without spending a dime. We will cover some free disaster prep ideas here, where the only investment will be your time.

Educate Yourself

This is a great preparedness strategy, as there are numerous ways to teach yourself about a variety of survival topics. Research everything you can regarding how to survive a disaster.

Head to your local library to see what disaster planning resources you can find there. Then go online.

You’ll easily find a wealth of free information on surviving a crisis. Read prepper blogs, find tutorials and watch survival videos on YouTube.

You can also connect via social media with survivalists and preppers. Get to know them and learn as much as you can from their experiences, including their mistakes.

If you need emergency survival topic ideas for research, the list below and book recommendations will get you started.

Medical Preparedness

Start with these books if your library has them:

• Emergency War Surgery: The Survivalist’s Medical Desk Reference
• The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help Is Not on the Way
• Where There Is No Doctor.

Dental Preparedness

Start with the book below if your library has it. If not, there are some great online resources for this topic:

• Where There Is No Dentist.

Food and Water Preservation

Here are a few books to start with:

• Survival Pantry: The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage, Water Storage, Canning and Preserving
• Harvesting H2O: A Prepper’s Guide to the Collection, Treatment and Storage of Drinking Water While Living off the Grid.

Survival Foraging

You can find a lot of foraging information online, but if you prefer books, look for these at your library:

• Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
• The Complete U.S. Army Survival Guide to Foraging Skills, Tactics and Techniques
• The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants.

Securing Your Home

Start with the books below and then head online for more information:

• Holding Your Ground: Preparing for Defense If It All Falls Apart
• Barbed Wire, Barricades and Bunkers: The Free Citizen’s Guide to Fortifying the Home Retreat.

General Survival Information

There are so many books on this topic, but here are a few favorites:

• Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide: Food, Shelter, Security, Off-the-Grid Power and More Life-Saving Strategies for Self-Sufficient Living
• Urban Preppers with Kids, Pets & Parents: Disaster Survival for the Family
• How to Survive Anywhere: A Guide for Urban, Suburban, Rural and Wilderness Environments

 

·         Discover Your Community

·         Take a look around your neighborhood. It’s likely you know a few neighbors but not everyone in your community. Now is the time to get to know many of your neighbors. After all, they can be excellent resources when push comes to shove, and that’s who will surround you when a disaster hits. Bonus points if you live close to a trained medical professional. Make them your new best friend.

·         Map out the vicinity and figure out who can provide what in a crisis. It’s more than knowing what they do professionally. Keep in mind an avid hobby hunter would be an excellent friend to have when you’re left to provide meat for your family.

·         Ask friendly questions to get to know more about their interests. Figure out who is the hiker, gardener, etc. If you have the resources, you can host a neighborhood party, or just get in the habit of taking an evening stroll and start chatting with everyone you see, seeking out those you don’t know.

·         Beyond neighbors, learn more about your general area. Find the public lands close by and spend time reading trail maps and hiking the area. You never know when that knowledge will come in handy.

·         Home Planning

·         There are a few ways within your home to prepare for free. Start off by gathering personal documents such as proof of identification, property records, insurance policies, medical information and financial records.

·         If you have a fireproof safe, store everything there. If not, make sure documents are hidden away and in a waterproof bag.

·         Next up, know how to shut off utilities. Many natural disasters result in broken utility lines. Test yourself and make sure you can quickly turn off gas, electricity and water.

·         Do you need a special tool to shut any of these off? If so, store it in a place where you can grab it fast. Teach others in your household how to shut off utilities as well.

·         Another preparation item for the home is planning evacuation routes. If you have children in the home, this is especially important. Teaching them how to escape quickly — and escape from different areas of the home — may save their lives. Make it a game and time them to encourage speed.

·         Learn a New Skill

·         Do you know how to can food or start a garden from heirloom seeds? Are you an expert in self-defense? What do you know about home repairs or car repairs?

·         These are all skills that will come in handy during an emergency. Check locally. Often you can find free classes through your library and community centers.

·         Conserve Water

·         Why not start collecting rainwater for harvest? Are you able to collect rainwater legally? Check city codes before you start, as this is a great way to prep for free. Ideally, you can find a free food-grade barrel.

1.   Food

 

·         I’ve always said that it’s best to have a good 1 year’s supply of “survival food” hidden away in plastic kits for a crisis.

·         But to get started, be sure to have at least get a 1-month supply for every member of your family that you can have on standby if you have to shelter-in-place following a nuclear attack.

·         I like survival food packs the best because not only do they have a 25-year shelf-life, but they also travel much better than heavy canned goods if you need to bug-out of your area.

 

2. Water

 

·         Even more important than food, is your ability to gain access to clean, drinkable water.

·         Your tap water will eventually be contaminated until clean resources can be made for citizens.

·         As soon as you hear word of an attack, isolate and protect your home’s current water sources — such as turning off the intake pipes to you hot water heater and filling up a tub with the currently safe water.

·         Stocking up on bottled water (or having a large container you can fill up) is another option.

 

·         The 5 Best Ways To Get Well Water Without Electricity

·         Water is the key to survival. At least 60 percent of the adult human body is made of water, and we can live no more than three days without it.

·         Since most modern water pumps use electricity to obtain well water, you may wonder how you would access well water in the event of a long-term power outage on the homestead. Here are five methods:

·         1. Manual pump – With a hand-operated pump, you can obtain five to 15 gallons of water per minute, depending on the make and model of the pump.

·         Manual pumps, which can be used with or without electivity, require quite a bit of effort, but they are an economical and easy way to get water during a blackout.  The story continues here:

·         http://www.offthegridnews.com/how-to-2/5-ways-to-get-well-water-without-electricity/

3. Medical

·         Hospitals will be overrun with wounded and those suffering from not protecting themselves against the radioactive fallout.

·         That means you had better prep now to “be your own doctor”.

·         Basic first aid skills and a stockpile of any necessary prescription drugs will help, but for a nuclear attack, I also recommend you pick up some Potassium Iodide tablets.

·         It’s not a “magic cure” for radiation exposure, but it will help to protect your thyroid from radioactive absorption following an attack.

 

4. Air

·         This is probably the most overlooked factor in surviving a nuclear disaster.

·         Once the air is contaminated with fallout, there will be nowhere to hide - or breathe - for most people.

·         But you’re not “most people”.

·         The secret is to seal off an area of your home to keep the fallout outside… and not die of lack of oxygen at the same time.

·         This is pretty easy to do with a “clean air generator” that filters out the contamination from the breathable air your family needs to stay alive inside your improvised “fallout shelter”.

·         (More on that in a minute…

5. Shelter 

·         I’m guessing you probably don’t have an underground shelter in your backyard, right?

·         No worries… most people don’t… and it’s really not necessary.

·         As I said earlier, it’s really easy to create your own improvised fallout shelter inside your home if you know how.

·         The details are too long to get into here but our “Nuclear Survival Guide” shows you exactly what materials to pick up at your local Home Depot or other hardware store as well as how to build your own “clean air generator” with zero technical skills needed.

·         The entire manual is really inexpensive (there’s even a “freebie” option) and it’s the fastest short-cut out there for just getting the “do this now” info you need to get prepped as quickly as possible.

You can check out what’s included in this guide here…

 

Conclusion

·         These are all free yet important ways to start prepping for a disaster. However, keep in mind you’ll still need to spend some money to have the essential prep supplies such as survival food, water filters, a generator, etc.

·         Regardless, educating yourself should always be a top priority in disaster survival preparation.

·         And at the bare minimum, both FEMA and the Red Cross recommend Americans have at least 72 hours of nonperishable food on hand for an impending emergency.

 

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Related Resources:

Preparedness

·      How to Develop the Situational Awareness of Jason Bourne

·      Ultimate Security: All About Homeland Security

·      Preparedness PDF. Index (Hundreds of links)

·      PREPARE Magazine

·      Disaster Preparedness: Natural disasters (Video 54 minutes)

·      Disaster Preparedness / 38 Principles of Self Sufficiency

·      Top 50 Websites For Learning Self-Canning

·      Survival and Preparedness Books

·      Five Different Shelf Life Studies

·      Rule of Three's

·      Hostage Survival

·      Everyday Survival

·      Ten Components of Emergency Preparedness

·      The 7 Steps to Preparedness

·      Finding Your Own Freedom

·      The Five Monkeys

·      There are Four "Preparedness" Stages of Denial

·      Why We Don't Prepare for Disaster

·      A Survival Guide to Catastrophe

·      Comprehensive Barter Item List

·      Checklist For Hard Times

·      Car Emergency / Survival Tools

·      Typical Contents of a Bug-Out Bag

·      10 Traits Of A Successful Survivalist

·      20 Simple Steps to Basic Preparedness

·      Family Preparedness Checklist

·      Emergency Preparedness Checklist

·      A CHECKLIST OF IMPORTANT FAMILY DOCUMENTS

·      37 Things You Should Stock but Probably Don’t

·      10 Things To Do Now!

 

>>Want to improve your brain even more?  Learn how here:

 

Enhance your memory with B’s…

Want to have sharp the recall you enjoyed years ago so that it is easy to recall names, dates and where you left your keys?  Take a daily B-complex vitamin that contains at least 1.3 mg. of B-6 if you’re 50 or younger, 1.5 mg. of B-6 if you’re 51 or older, 2.4 mcg. of B-12 and 400 mcg. Of folic acid—and research in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship shows you’ll have a better memory within12 weeks.  B vitamins tamp down the brain’s level of homocysteine, considered by scientists to be a key cause of memory loss as you age.

 

 

You Have a 16-Cylinder Brain-Learn How to Use it & Re-Awaken the Genius Inside You!

 

I know everyone is short on time in this hectic world so I’ve kept this PDF short and to the point with links to expert how-to articles and guides including:

 

·         How to Increase Your Intelligence

·         6 Step Brain Exercise Steve Jobs Used to Boost Creativity

·         6 Simple Habits to Boost Your Intelligence

·         The Best Vitamins to Increase Brain Function

·         How a Harvard Brain Specialist Keeps Her Brain Healthy

·         A Review of the Top 10 Brain [Limitless] Pills

·         How to Protect Your Cognitive Function

 

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/You-Have-a-16-Cylinder-Brain-Learn-How-to-Use-it-Re-Awaken-the-Genius-Inside/423194447

 

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Bruce, the Poor Man- philosopher, social critic & cynic

 

 

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